


Revenge is sweeter (with you by my side)

by HopeSilverheart



Series: Loving Em at 2AM [46]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: (i think), Alternate Universe - Criminals, Angst, BAMF Aline Penhallow, BAMF Lydia Branwell, Crimes & Criminals, F/F, Found Family, Humor, Lydia Branwell & Aline Penhallow Friendship, Mentions of Violence, Organized Crime, Post-Break Up, Protective Lydia, Revenge, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:16:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24988930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeSilverheart/pseuds/HopeSilverheart
Summary: Well, this place is positively dull,” Lydia pouted, and Aline snorted, glancing up at the imposing skyscraper in front of them. She was quite sure this was the first time anyone had referred to it as ‘dull’. “Oh come on, you have to admit it doesn’t live up to our Headquarters. It’s probably all superficial on the outside and boring on the inside, just like its employees.”This time, Aline outright laughed at her sister’s words. She sometimes forgot how light-hearted and funny her sister could be when she wasn’t trying so hard to be the perfect criminal.“Are you ready for this, sweetheart?” the blonde asked, and Aline barely hesitated before nodding. “Well then, let the pettiness begin.”Or: After Helen breaks up with her in the worst possible way, Aline gets her revenge.
Relationships: Helen Blackthorn/Aline Penhallow
Series: Loving Em at 2AM [46]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764400
Comments: 3
Kudos: 35





	Revenge is sweeter (with you by my side)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thatnerdemryn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatnerdemryn/gifts).



She had been ignoring the issue for over a week.

Helen had been gone for seven days, and Aline hadn’t let herself think about it once. She had had fleeting moments of panic and sadness, of course, but she had covered them up with work and missions and sleep. She had buried them deep down and forced herself to stop _feeling_ , knowing that she would only hurt herself if she let her emotional defences down.

Helen had been gone for seven days, and Aline was starting to understand that her girlfriend – _ex_ -girlfriend – wasn’t coming back. She had truly left, had truly disappeared, and Aline wasn’t sure how to handle that. So she didn’t. In typical Penhallow fashion, she pretended like she wasn’t breaking from the inside out and pushed through, letting Alec send her on stakeout after stakeout, taking down more opponents in a week than she had in the past month.

She didn’t have the time to think about Helen but, apparently, her friends thought otherwise. She had wondered who would be the first to approach her and try to get her to talk things out and she had to admit she was surprised it hadn’t been Alec. The man was her older brother in all the ways that mattered, and Aline had been waiting for him to do something all week.

Instead, _Lydia_ was the one who came to her, eyes serious and lips pinched tightly together. The blonde was Aline’s best friend and had been her partner in crime for a long time before Helen had entered their lives, but Lydia was also known for being slightly… Well, they were all repressed, but Lydia even more so. To see her standing in front of Aline with concern painted all over her features and a frown marring her beautiful face was a shock and also a _very_ bad sign.

It meant Aline was worse than she had thought she was.

“Do I really look that bad?” She grimaced before Lydia could get a single word in. “I swear I’ve been trying to take care of myself, even though I’ll admit I may have lost track of myself a few times.”

“You look fine,” Lydia waved her concerns away, and Aline furrowed her brows confusedly. If she didn’t look like hell, then why- “But you haven’t talked to anyone all week, sweetheart. Alec doesn’t want to say anything, because I think he feels responsible for Helen’s departure, but you can’t shut us out like this. We’re your family, Aline, we just want to help you get through this. Hell, you don’t even have to talk to me about your feelings, we can just go on a rampage and burn her house down or something, for all that I care.”

“I feel like that would get us into a world of trouble,” Aline chuckled, her heart-warming at Lydia’s words.

 _Family_. The one thing Helen thought she couldn’t have if she stayed with the Lightwoods. The one thing that had apparently made her leave. Aline didn’t understand where things had gone so wrong; she didn’t understand why Helen couldn’t see the organisation the same way Aline did. If anything, they were a family first, and a crime organisation second.

Helen hadn’t managed to see it, but Aline wouldn’t let the blonde’s words get to her and destroy everything she had built for herself. Alec, Isabelle, and Lydia were her family. They looked after her when she was down, stood by her when things went wrong, and protected her no matter the cost.

Helen was a fool if she thought she was going to find a better life out there, away from the crime world.

“Surprisingly, I don’t really care,” Lydia grinned. “I kill people for a living, Aline, we _both_ do. Arson would hardly be the worst crime on our long list of misdeeds. Besides, I hear that getting rid of something through smoke and fire is particularly satisfying, although I’ll gladly hear your ideas and thoughts on the matter. You’ve always been the subtler one of us two, so perhaps you have a grand plan in mind already and are just waiting for the right time to execute it.”

“Unfortunately not,” Aline shrugged. “I’m just not sure hurting Helen is the right way to deal with things. I mean, what will it achieve, beyond a sick sense of satisfaction that I hurt her the same way she hurt me?”

“Closure?” Lydia suggested. “And even if all you get out of it is satisfaction, don’t you think it’ll be worth it? She walked out on you, sweetheart. She didn’t even tell you about it, didn’t warn you that she was about to break your heart, and she left us all behind as though we had never mattered to her. I haven’t done anything yet because I know Alec did the honours last week, but I’ve been dying to show her a piece of my mind ever since she left this building. I’ll respect your wishes if you truly don’t want to get some sort of revenge, but Aline… Be honest with me, what do you think will make you feel better: a conversation, or a good old-fashioned ladies’ night out?”

If Aline had been normal, if she had been less damaged by years of absent parenting and a lifetime of putting violence above emotions, she would have asked for a conversation. However, Aline _was_ damaged. Maybe that, more than anything, had been why Helen had left her behind. Maybe the blonde had finally realised that Aline would never be the person she was looking for.

She would never be a kind woman who put innocent people above her family. She would never stop hurting and killing criminals who had crossed a line, and she would never stop _loving_ the thrill of the hunt. No matter how much she hated herself for it sometimes, Aline had been born a criminal and she would die one.

So, whilst a conversation about her feelings and the way her heart was crumbling as they spoke sounded like a reasonable option, Aline had to admit that the second one sounded a lot more tempting.

She didn’t want to hurt Helen, not really, but she also wanted to send the blonde a message. She wanted to show her that she wasn’t hurt, even if that was the furthest thing from the truth. She wanted to go up to the woman she loved and throw all the things she knew about her back in her face. She wanted to trash her car, burn her house down, and deep down, maybe she wanted to hurt her just a little bit.

Just enough to show that Helen had messed with the wrong person.

“Alright, what did you have in mind?”

Lydia grinned wickedly and, for the first time in a week, Aline felt herself mirror the expression with one of her own. Her siblings always knew how to make her feel better, and this time was no different.

Her sister leaned over Aline’s desk and pushed aside all her paperwork, taking out a small notebook in which she kept a list of her favourite torture methods. Some were downright violent, and Aline knew they would be staying away from those, but she also knew violence was hardly the worst thing they could do to Helen. Revenge was a dish better served cold, and Lydia was an _expert_ on the topic.

“So, depending on how obvious or subtle you want to be, we have a few options that Alec will sign off on…”

As it turned out, Aline really didn’t want to be subtle, which is how she found herself standing in front of Helen’s new workplace sixteen hours later, Lydia at her side wearing a bold suit and a mischievous smirk. They had both taken the night off to get some rest, had rushed to Alec’s office that morning to get his approval, and had headed to the Blackthorn Media building as quickly as possible.

Aline should have known that her ex-girlfriend would go straight back to her perfect family business as soon as the criminal lifestyle became too much for her. It was slightly disappointing, seeing as how Helen had insisted that she would never follow in her parents’ footsteps like the rest of her siblings had, but Aline had to admit it was hardly surprising.

“Well, this place is positively dull,” Lydia pouted, and Aline snorted, glancing up at the imposing skyscraper in front of them. She was quite sure this was the first time anyone had referred to it as ‘dull’. “Oh come on, you have to admit it doesn’t live up to our Headquarters. It’s probably all superficial on the outside and boring on the inside, just like its employees.”

This time, Aline outright laughed at her sister’s words. She sometimes forgot how light-hearted and funny her sister could be when she wasn’t trying so hard to be the perfect criminal.

“Are you ready for this, sweetheart?” the blonde asked, and Aline barely hesitated before nodding. “Well then, let the pettiness begin.”

Because after hours of debating over the best route to take when it came to Helen, Aline and Lydia had reached a very simple consensus: if there was one thing Helen didn’t want to deal with, it was drama. Add to that a healthy dose of humiliation, and the revenge would be ever so sweet.

Aline wouldn’t even have to physically hurt her ex, wouldn’t have to put her own heart at risk; all she had to do was speak the truth and let everyone in the building know about Helen’s life. She wouldn’t talk about the organisation, of course, would never risk her family like that, but Helen and she had been dating for an entire year before the blonde had decided to leave.

Helen had combed through Aline’s apartment to make it look like they had never been together in the first place, but Aline was resourceful and smart. On top of that, she had an amazing team and family behind her.

Helen had never stood a chance. Leaving them had been her biggest mistake, and Aline hoped she would grow to realise that and regret her poor decision-making.

With one last nod thrown towards Lydia, Aline placed the intercom into her ear – just in case things got a little heated and she needed back-up – and stepped into the building, strutting as confidently as possible.

Being a criminal meant having masks up almost all the time, and Aline was one of the best women on the field, second only to Lydia – and sometimes Isabelle. She smiled charmingly at the reporters milling around the place, easily getting Helen’s location out of one of the women at the counter. She made polite small talk in the elevator, blending in as though it was exactly where she belonged. Her skin crawled as she got deeper and deeper into this nest of people who would probably kill to get a story on a criminal such as herself, but Aline didn’t let her discomfort show on her face.

She waltzed onto the tenth floor with a smile, not faltering even when she spotted Helen in the distance.

Pain was a strange thing. For a week, Aline had been completely listless, unable to do anything other than work and sleep, so desperate to ignore the hurt crawling inside her mind that she had shut her heart off. Now, as she saw Helen talk with her co-workers, grinning brightly, all that pain transformed into something else, something dangerous and deadly and _cold_.

Pain was a strange thing, but anger was a powerful one.

Her smile turned into a frown, and Aline forced tears to well up in her eyes. She would have made a great actress, if that was what she had wanted to do with her life. By the time she reached Helen’s desk, the tears were streaming down her face and her lips were trembling. She looked heartbroken, and everyone in the office would be able to see that.

“Ma’am, are you alright?”

Aline smiled sadly at the man who had been talking to Helen. He had stopped as soon as Aline had entered his line of sight, and she barely managed to keep in her smug smirk when Helen turned around and gaped at her.

“Aline?”

The good thing about surprised was that they never failed to make people screw up. Helen had been so determined to forget about her past, or at least pretend like she had never been a part of it, but she had just made things a lot harder for herself. She had just proven to everyone around that she knew who Aline was, which would make the brunette’s job _so much_ easier.

Already, Helen’s co-workers were turning towards them surreptitiously, and Aline could see the moment when Helen realised she had given herself away in a moment of weakness.

“You _bitch_!” She yelled, her voice echoing around the office loudly and clearly. Everyone who hadn’t been paying attention to her scene yet was _definitely_ listening now, which meant Aline could finally work her magic. “How dare you leave me like that without explaining anything?! How dare you go behind my back and straight to my _brother_ of all people?! I thought you respected me more than that, Helen, but I was clearly wrong!”

The good thing about acting was that all Aline needed to do was tell the truth whilst twisting her words into something _more_ , and everyone would be fooled. Oh, Helen wouldn’t be, but it was her word against Aline’s and, if there was one thing Aline knew about middle-class New Yorkers, it was that they loved their gossip. A co-worker who had abandoned her girlfriend and done something with said girlfriend’s brother? It would be too juicy for them to resist spreading the news.

“And then I hear from _Isabelle_ , of all people, that you broke into my apartment to steal your stuff back!” Aline continued angrily, letting her actual emotions bleed into her voice. “You couldn’t even say it to my face? Did you truly trust me so little? Was I never anything more than an experiment to you, a way for you to see if you could change the poor little girl into the princess of your fantasies?”

The bad thing about acting as herself was that it made it harder for Aline to separate the lie she was trying to weave from the truth. No matter what she had said to Lydia, there was a part of her that needed to get her feelings out there, needed to push all her rage and sadness and heartbreak back onto the person who had caused them in the first place. Aline didn’t want a conversation, but she _did_ want to get these pesky feelings out of her system before they consumed her.

And now Helen was here, staring at her as though _Aline_ was the irrational one, the one to be blamed, the bad guy. Always the bad one in her eyes.

“Aline,” the blonde hissed, and Aline held back a victorious chuckle at the urgency and horror in Helen’s tone. She was blushing lightly, and Aline wondered if she was starting to understand what it felt like to be humiliated in front of people she respected. “You don’t want to do this.”

“Oh, that’s rich!” Aline said loudly, completely ignoring the blonde’s attempts at discretion. She was here to make some noise, not to have a private discussion with the woman who had abandoned her. “How dare you claim to know me, when all you’ve done is hurt me over and over again? It’s no wonder you had to run straight back to your family, they’re probably the only ones who want you at this point! Do you feel proud of yourself, Helen, for leaving dozens of broken hearts in your wake?”

Alec’s hidden sadness, Lydia’s inexplicable rage, Isabelle’s cold attitude, all caused by a single person. Helen deserved everything that was coming for her.

“And then you dare try to erase yourself from our lives, as though we never meant anything to you!” Aline spat out. “You thought you could burn photographs and delete messages and act as though we had never happened, but I have some news for you darling: you _failed_.”

It was her coup de maître, and this time, she let the hint of a smirk play at her lips as Helen paled and stood suddenly, urgency and fear flashing in her eyes. Oh yes, Lydia’s plan had been a great idea. Feelings were all well and nice, but confrontation was something Aline thrived on, something she _excelled_ at.

“Oh, that’s right,” she sniffled, biting at her lip to keep her grin at bay. “I dated you for a year, Helen, did you really think you got rid of every single picture of us together? Oh no, although I’m sure they’ll make great fuel for a bonfire.”

It was a lie and they both knew it. Aline’s words were a threat, a reminder that the brunette had proof of the time they had spent together. Just a gentle way to tell Helen that she would have to tread very carefully from now on.

“For all of your new co-workers’ sakes, I hope you treat them better than you did us, and don’t end up betraying them like you did your last colleagues,” she added, glancing at the employees observing them and letting satisfaction flood her heart at their suddenly guarded looks. “I’d be especially careful, given the fact that your _family_ runs this place, and we both know how you deal with family businesses. Must stir up some uncomfortable memories for you, since you don’t believe in work partners becoming anything other than tools for you to shape into your image of perfection.”

With that, she turned away from Helen. She hadn’t come here to listen to her ex try to justify herself or spit even more vitriol at her. She hadn’t come here to be hurt again, and she wasn’t about to deviate from Lydia’s plan. She had made herself vulnerable as it was, and she had done enough. The various reporters who had been talking to Helen had backed away, and Aline sent them a sympathetic glance on her way out.

“Oh don’t worry, Helen is all about _change_ ,” she said, her voice saccharine-sweet. “I’m sure she’s a completely different person now. A week can really make a difference in a person, you know?”

And then she was gone, leaving a sea of uncomfortable and silent journalists behind her. It had been a while since Aline had last spread as much chaos as she just had, and she felt high on the adrenaline and the power.

On top of that, she had had a chance to get her feelings out there, to mix her true hurt with the exaggerated hatred, and she could already feel her heart lightening. Maybe she would need to have an actual conversation with Alec at some point, listen to what her big brother had to say and let him comfort her, but she felt like she had already taken a step in the right direction.

She was proven right when she stepped out of the building and was immediately crushed into one of Lydia’s tight embraces. The blonde clung to her for a few seconds before pulling away and beaming at her proudly. Aline felt herself preen under the attention, glad that she had lived up to her sister’s expectations.

“You, sweetheart, are an absolute wonder and a force to be reckoned with,” Lydia murmured, cupping Aline’s cheek. “You handled yourself with grace and confidence, and I couldn’t be prouder of you.”

“It’s all thanks to you,” Aline whispered, leaning into Lydia’s touch and letting herself bask in the other woman’s warmth and love for a few moments. Her little stunt had been slightly more draining than she had anticipated, and she would take whatever comfort she could get. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Lyds.”

“Oh please,” Lydia scoffed. “That was all you, little sister. You just needed someone to push you in the right direction.”

“Still, _thank you_.”

She pushed all the love and gratefulness she felt for Lydia into her voice, hoping that her sister understood what she was really trying to say. ‘Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for caring. Thank you choosing me, over and over again.’

“Anything for my family, Aline.”

Helen had left because she didn’t believe the Lightwood organisation would ever be able to give her the family she was looking for, but Aline knew better.

She had loved Helen, and she would miss her dearly, but she would have never chosen her over the siblings she had found in the form of violent yet loving criminals. They weren’t perfect, but they loved her.

They loved her flaws and all, and that was all Aline had ever wanted.

**Author's Note:**

> Heya guys! Thank you so much for reading! Another Heline fic in the crime universe because I love these two girls so much and really like making them suffer, apparently. I also love showing some BAMF!Lydia and Lydia being a good friend/sister, so... I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Love, Junie. 
> 
> (find me on tumblr @hopesilverheart)


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